Fire in the East 4.1 Nordic

Kraut

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Here is a little overview of AGC, the other fronts are not that interesting right now :)
 

JMS

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Kraut said:
Here we have a little candy for you guys, an animation showing the entire theather from turn 01-06 :)
AWESOME! I want more :D
 

Kraut

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13th July, 1941
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

To say it with some slightly altered words of The Doors: Is this the end, my friend?

AGN
Not that much to report, enemy resistance was basically non existing and all units were able to advance pretty much unhindered. Just one division in the Balticum was eleminated and Pskov captured. The southern wing of AGN, that turned east at Velikiey Luki to advance towards Rzev, Kalinin and later Moscow, destroyed three more blocking divisions. No further resistance was sighted and we estimate some further speedy advances during the next turn.

AGC
Now AGC really did a pretty good job this turn, they basically torn apart the entire soviet central front. The pocketed soviet units between Vitebsk and Orsha were eleminated, clearing the road trowards Smolensk. The pocketed units behind the Dnepr and at Gomel were almost entirely squashed and the few remaining divisions are pinned, surrounded and in a hopless position. I will take care of them next turn. Some soviet divisions were sighted trying to erect a new defence at Bryansk and of course the Moscow defences grow, but besides that no further organized resistance was sighted. We expect to be able to advance pretty much unhindered over the next few days.

AGS
AGS had not much to do this turn but to keep advancing to reach the Ingul river defence line, and we indeed made contact this turn and will start our attacks next turn. German regiments also closed in on Kiev and tried to take the city, but the soviets were able to defeat all our attack in bloody street fighting. The city lies in ruins and we will continue to attack the now weakened soviets over the next few days until the city is ours! In the very south rumanian forces captured the lightly defended Odessa and thereby triggered a 5% soviet replacement drop.

Finland
The finnish forces took advantage of the fact that the soviets failed to reorganize their disrupted forces and destroyed several divisions this turn, we are now confident that the initiative on this front is firmly in our hands. In the very north german forces continued to advance on Murmansk, and, after defeating the soviet forward defenders, are now at the outskirts of this important baltic seaport.

Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe concentrated it's activities on combat support missions and some attacks on forward soviet air bases, our losses were acceptable as we managed to shoot down 5 soviet planes for every destroyed german plane.

Estimated soviet losses this turn:
21 Rifle Divisions
8 Tank Divisions
4 Motorized Division
1 Cavalry Division


Conclusion: How much more can the soviets take? During just roughly one month of fighting over 170 enemy divisions were destroyed, the soviet baltic and black sea fleet neutralized, the soviet air force almost whiped out and the Wehrmacht advanced deeply into enemy territory. The soviets were beaten wherever they tried to resist and whole armies first surrounded and than annihilated. Organized resistance is now only visible in the south were some soviet armies of yet to determine strength try to block access to the important industrial cities in the donbas region. Resistance in AGCs sector ceased completely and we expect the next encounter directly infront of Moscow. AGN is quickly advancing towards the soviet defences behind the Luga river but they are confident that they'll be able to overcome any resistance here and expect the next real resistance directly infront of Leningrad. Is the war already over? Are the soviets decisively beaten? Will Stalin offer surrender terms? Stay tuned for more :)
 

Kraut

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16th July, 1941
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

Before I give you an overview of the front I have to correct my assessment from last turn, the soviets didn't surrender and instead it seems as if they are beginning to reorganize their forces, this turn several new divisions were railed to the front to build a new defence in front of moscow. Also, after having recovered from their 80 shock, the soviets are now defending far more stubborn and dislodging a defender became real work. So, the fight isn't over yet, as there are several more soviet divisions waiting for their destruction :D

AGN
In the baltic some forward regiments had some troubles to force their way across the river at Tartu, west of the lake peipus. Even with some successes here there is still work to do next turn as the defenders were pushed back but not yet destroyed. In the western baltic the seaport Parnu was captured and Tallinn encircled, the few remaining mobile defenders were more or less all routed or try to escape across the Narva river. AGCs Leningrad thrust reached the Luga defences and we expect to assault them next turn. The Kalinin thrust reached Rzhev were the soviets try to build a new defence in front of my forces, but the soviets will have precious little time to prepare any halfway decent fortifications so we'll try to overwhelm them next turn before they can dig in.

AGC
AGC had some mobbing up to do and cleared te remaining Dnepr pockets, 11 divisions alone were destroyed here and all organized enemy resistance on this sector broke down. On the Minsk-Moscow Highway the important industrial city Smolensk was captured, which will lead to a 5% soviet replacement drop. AGCs southern wing is closing in on Bryansk (another 5% replacement industrial city) while the central thrust is aimed at Vyazma, the next big city on the Minsk-Moscow highway and a strong fortress inside the new Rzhev-Vyazma-Ugra defence line.

AGS
A strong infantry force with plenty of artillery support (over 1000 guns of various caliber) had only one objective this turn: to take and hold Kiev and level the soviet industry (another 5% replacement drop). After some very heavy battles with stiff losses on both sides some depleated regiments finally made it into the city and cleared 4 division from the city that were fanatically and to the death resisting. We think that the NKVD division defending the northern city was responsible for the soviet fanatism, as we've witnessed that retreating soviet soldiers were mowed down by their own MGs, as ordered by the soviet political commissars. But even the most fanatical resistance cant survive in face of the massive artillery barrages that fell on the city (see attachment).
ACS southern wing tried to breach the Ingul defence this turn and concentrated their attacks on the northern part of this defence line, were the soviets had no river line to dig in behind and had to dig their trenches in open terrain. By chance we discovered that the Dnepr defence at the city Kanev, approx. 100km south of Kiev, was inadequately defended and we spontaneously dispatched an ad hoc force to exploit this oversight. After heavy fighting we managed to establish a 30km wide and 30 km deep bridgehead and hope to exploit it further next turn. 50km further to the south-east the original intended attack took place and with heavy artillery support we managed to throw back the defending soviets and managed to destroy some of their divisions on the way. We still don't have a breakthrough yet but hope to be able to push the now weakened soviets back over the next few days to thereby finally compromise their entire Ingul defence.

Finland
The finnish forces took advantage of the disorganized soviet defence and smashed several more divisions, the Karelian Isthmus is now basically cleared of enemy forces and all that stands between the finns an Leningrad are some soviet HQs. The german HQ was outraged when they heard that the finns plan not to press further on the defenceless city and to instead honor their promise that Finland will be no danger to the city of Leningrad. Well, the german forces are prepared to take Leningrad on their own if they have to, but we are going to have a little talk with the finns once our forces meet.
In the northern Karelia some soviet force remain but we are confident that we'll be able to press the offensive deeper into formerly finnish terrain next turn.
In the very north the important seaport Murmansk was taken, after costly assaults and bloody street fighting. With the industry here under our control all that remains to be done is to clear out the remaining soviet forces in this rought terrain.

Luftwaffe
Besides the usual combat support missions and some airfield raids, the main mission of the Luftwaffe was to attack the freshly railed in soviet forces along their new Rzhev-Vyazma-Ugra frontline, to disrupt and prevent them from forming an organized defence. Even though we failed to achieve 100% success, estimates are that 60-70% of all mission were successfull and that will leave the soviets hopefully in a weaker position once our ground forces reach them.

Estimated soviet losses this turn:
17 Rifle Divisions
3 Tank Divisions
1 Motorized Division
 

Kraut

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Here is a little overview of the current eastern front, i've marked the starting position, my advances over the last 24 days and all known soviet defences (marked in blue). Yes, there are some gaping holes in the soviet defence and I plan to exploit them as good as possible :D
 

Kraut

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to celebrate the continuation of this game, I've made an animation from turn 1-9, to give you a little overview of the current situation, while I continue planing my turn :)
 

Kraut

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20th July, 1941
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

This turn was dominated by major unopposed advances in the center and heavy battles in AGN and AGS sectors. It also saw a 15% reduction in soviet replacements, from the losses of Kiev, Murmansk and Smolensk last turn, I hope that will reduce the stream of reconstituted units quite a bit and will force the soviets to preserve his forces even more (well, as if they care ;) )

AGN
The main task this turn was the breaching of the Luga defence line and the crossing of this last major natural obstacle on our drive towards Leningrad. It seems my opponent had finally realized how weak this line actually was (in the center a 30KM front was held by nothing more than a HQ and two AA companies) and he hastly dispatched three militia divisions to bolster the defences, but all was in vain as only one division was able to reach the frontline in time. Mechanized german regiments quickly seized the opportunity, threw aside the weak center defence and split the defence line in half. Than the infantry divisions supported by two tank regiments and heavy artillery support began reducing the eastern and western flank of this defence line, trashing and routing the defender and bagging two strong tank divisions that were part of the Luga line. We plan to finish off these remainders next turn and than expect the next soviet resistance at the outer Leningrad defence perimeter. Oh, just as a reminder to my opponent, while the finns are bound by a house rule and cant press further south than their original border, the germans are not bound by any such rule and can use their division here to threaten Leningrad from the north (I ask the designers, this rule is intended to prevent the soviets from holding this front with nothing else than a HQ and two engineer regiments.... hmmm, wonder who would do this? ;) ) Not that intend to do just that, no way..... or, do I?? :devil:

AGC
After having overcome the heavy soviet resistance in the Smolensk area advances this turn were largely unopposed. After their defeat last turn the soviets hastly errected a new front line along the north-south railway from Rzhev, through Vyazma down to Kirov, roughly 230km in front of moscow, but the way up to that new frontline was free of any noteworthy enemy forces. The most notable achievment was made in the northern sector of AGC, were this new frontline was already reached last turn, here 6th and 12th panzer division forced a breakthrough through the still unorganized defence, captured Rzhev and crossed the Volga river. No in-deepth defence was encountered, so that we expect to be able to hold this bridgehead, even so so far it's only held by one depleted infantry regiment.

AGS
In the south my opponent finally realized the hopelesness of his defence attemps here, and he withdrew the large bulk of his Dnepr-Ingul forces, leaving behind several divisions as a reargurad to slow my forces. Immediately after seeing the soviets flee, german and rumanian units began crossing the river to chase the enemy and destroy whatever he left behind. While the Ingul line was only held by a few security and cavallery forces (even thou my rumanian ally had some minor problems with them), the Dnepr-Ingul gap was still defended by 7 well dug in and rested soviet divisions, probably because the bulk of my forces was sighted here and the soviet commander might have though it would be a good idea to delay them even longer. Well, the end of the story was that these defenders got bagged and were destroyed to the last man by german infntery with strong artillery and Luftwaffe support, while my mobile forces pushed through an undefended corridor just south of the river Dnepr.... what a waste of good soviet divisions ;)
The remaining Kiev and Dnepr defender joined their comrads in my POW camps as most were overrun and destroyed, opening this front up for some deep penetrations with the distant goal of Kharkov and its heavy industry.

Finland
Not much to report here, in the Karelian Isthmus the finish forces dug in along their former borders with all soviet forces removed from their homeland. In the northern Karelia finish forces advanced slowly, no soviet forces of any noteworthy strenght are in sight and with the pressure the germans are putting on the soviets, it is doubtable that this front will be reinforced anywere soon, so no need to hurry, better build some new saunas or such ;)

Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe wast almost exclusively dedicated to combat support missions this turn, so not much to report here.

Estimated soviet losses this turn:
19 Rifle Divisions
3 Tank Divisions
1 Motorized Division


Well, maybe it's time to speak about Axis losses for a change, even though no divison was destroyed so far, losses inside the formations are getting worrying nevertheless.
Our combined losses are:
Infantry squads (all types, no MGs): 12.800
Guns (AT and artillery, no mortars): 700
Tanks: 580
Planes: 560
 

Polynike

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all well and good for kraut whose units move freely but my forces are in a permanent state of reorg. or im having the worst bad luck in the history of TAOW or the shock levels may need to be looked at :nervous:
 

Kraut

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Your forces are at 100% shock, so when your formations are constantly in reorg thats probably because you've send HQs to do front line duty, and a routed HQ has a good propability to put the entire formation into ReOrg.

From the manual:

Unit Reorganization

Units failing multiple quality checks during combat, usually as the result of significant combat losses, can become so disorganized that they will no longer respond to your orders. When this happens, the unit is said to be "reorganizing". At the beginning of each turn, all reorganizing units are checked to see if they have finished their reorganization. Units must pass a modified quality check in order to complete reorganization. This is more likely if they are supplied, have not moved in the previous turn, and are located with or adjacent to a cooperative headquarters unit.

Formation Attack Restrictions

Units of formations failing a formation quality check at the beginning of a turn are considered to be reorganizing and will only be available for non-combat orders. They will accept all other orders, and they will defend normally, but are not available for launching attacks or bombardments.
Formation quality is the average of the formation's proficiency and average assigned unit quality. Formation quality is reduced if many units are divided. The formation passes the quality check if this value is greater than a random number from 1 to 100, or if the number of units that experienced severe combat results in the previous turn is smaller than a random number from 1 to the number of units in the formation. This means that formations are subject to reorganization on turns following heavy combat.

Formation proficiency is reduced by 50% if any assigned HQ unit is eliminated, or if all assigned command groups in the HQ have been eliminated. You should attempt to protect your headquarters units to avoid this drop in proficiency.
and

Command Groups
Command Groups provide command functions for a formation. Headquarter units do not need to have command groups authorized, but if they do, their formations are likely to be forced to reorganize if all assigned command groups in the headquarters are eliminated. In game terms, use of command groups allows a scenario designer to build a vulnerability into a force's formations. We recommend taking advantage of this feature, so go ahead and assign 2 command groups (this will probably work better than one unless you really want your command structure to be fragile) to each HQ unit.
please note that soviet HQs only have 10 command groups, making them very fragile, while german Div HQs have no command group, making them far stronger in terms of reorganization.
 

Kraut

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23rd July, 1941
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

It's getting interesting, the german army is closing in on Moscow and Leningrad and the soviets havent yet found a way to stop or even slow us down, but now is the time where they can no longer afford to retreat, now they have to stand and fight or lose this war.
Leningrad is an important industrial city, but despite the humiliation of beeing unable to defend a major city of the soviet union, the soviets could probably fight on even after surrendering here. But moscow really is the heart of this nation, a 20% replacement hit and the loss of the major reinforcement entrance point might spell early doom on the soviets. The soviets simply cant afford to lose moscow this early in the war, and I am sure they will fight tooth and nail to defend it.

AGN
AGN is slowly reuniting again, the divisions send through the balticum finished clearing out any soviet resistance and are now about to cross the Narva river north of lake Peipus, to join in on the attack towards Leningrad. The main engagement this turn was fought at the southern Luga river, north of lake Il'men' where the remaining soviet defenders had to be destroyed. After succeeding here, my divisions continued to advance towards the outer Leningrad defence perimeter, roughtly 40km from the city center. Screening forces advance on our right flank to clear the woods of any soviet remainder, but resistance is reported to be almost nonexistent here.

AGC
AGC is continuing to push towards moscow and this turn we meat a new defence line, consisting of almost 30 divisions but stretched out thinly to cover a broad front. In our northern sector we already succeeded last turn in splitting this defence line into two, a smaller northern end with 8 divisions and the bigger southern wing. The northern soviet defence was pinned down by a few infantry regiments while strong german forces bypassed it to the north throuh Kalinin (5% industrial city) and to the south through Rzhev. After finishing the encircelment we began reducing this pocket and in the end succeeded to force the remaining defenders into a just 10km wide area. It is estimated that these forces will surrender soon.
The southern wing of AGC had to frontally assault the soviet divisions defending here, luckily for us the soviets had no reserves, no artillery support, no great defence terrain and not enough time to propperly dig in. Even though we smashed the soviets pretty badly, we still had bad luck, or, to tell the truth, didnt coordinate this attack propperly, therefor pushed the soviets back, badly hurting them but failed to actually encircle them. This means we'll have to spend another turn to actually destroy the now disorganized defenders, and this will slow us down a bit on our drive towards moscow. But we are confident that this will just delay the fall of moscow, and will be of no greater significants otherwise.

AGS
AGS had little to report this turn, the bulk of my forces is pushing forward south of the Dnepr river towards the Dnepr bend, which, once crossed, will open up the entire industrial hinterland of the soviet union for our forces. Some soviet divisions were sighted going into defencive positions here, but they are deemed way to few to actually stop us. On our southern wing some remaining soviet marine brigades had to be cleared from Nikolaev, and future plans are that after crossing the southern end of the Dnepr we will be in a good position to prepare assaulting the crim with the primary goal beeing Sevastopol.

Finland
The fins continued to clear the remaining soviets from their territory, and now the only known soviets forces on finish territory are a militia division and a fortress brigade. Its almost peacefull again in this godforsaken country ;)

Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe helped overcome the various soviet defences by supporting our ground forces with deadly air strikes, softening up the defenders and protecting my regiments from the soviet airforce. We took some losses, but the number of shot down soviet planes still by far outwights our own, and our losses will be easily replaced by freshly produced planes from our home industry.

Estimated soviet losses this turn:
15 Rifle Divisions
6 Tank Divisions
0 Motorized Division

Outlook: This is for sure the climax of this war, the soviets have now to pump everything they have into the defence of moscow or risk losing their capital city and probably the war after just two month of fighting. While the moscow defences still look pretty weak (mostly militia divisions), my recon planes reported a huge number of probably reconstituted division in the Gorkiy area, alone 36 infantry divisions and several brigade sized units were spotted here, and there might be even more that escaped beeing uncovered by my recon. The challenge for the soviets will now be to quickly get these divisions into fighting condition and into moscow, time is running out and the next few weeks promise to be real interesting :)
 

Kraut

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27th July, 1941
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:

well, what shall I say, this is the soviets death struggle, and all they still try to achieve is to save their capital city, while surrendering the rest of their country to the invaders. All reserves went to moscow, still existing defence line were taken back, marching towards moscow, the soviet army is falling apart everywhere.

AGN
There was no further resistance outside the Leningrad defence perimeter this turn, and our troops enjoyed some quiet days before the inevitable storm on the heavily defended Leningrad. Our Balic taskforce cleared the Narva defenders after some tough battles, and thereby opened a direct land connection towards Leningrad, ready to enter the battle for the city at any time. The rest of AGN advanced towards the Leningrad defences, made some limited attacks to test the strength of the defenders but were beaten back by heavy enemy artillery from the surviving soviet baltic fleet and the Leningrad fortresses. Further attacks were haltet until we finished to surround the city and cut it off from reinforcements and supply.

AGC
The task for AGc was to finish the job they started last turn, and finally eleminate the surviving soviet divisions blocking the roads towards moscow. As we had already managed to break them last turn, surrounding and killing them was a pretty easy task, and so several new POWs began the long march towards our POW camps. A bit further to the south a smaller german task force managed to finally capture Bryansk, a 5% industrial city that was stubbornly defended by the soviets, and aided by the bad terrain they had resisted far too long for my taste already. Orel, another 5% industrial city, was also captured by german recon forces after the soviet defenders here were withdrawn to bolster the moscow defences.

AGS
AGS no longer had any coordinated resistance to overcome, ony scattered units here and there blocking a bridge or road junction. Even the industrial cities Dneprpetrovsk and Zaporozhe were only devended by a militia division while some regular divisions blocked the Dnepr bend bridges. As a result these two industrial cities fell in our hands, even further reducing the soviets replacements. Pouring across the southern Dnrpr a melange of german and rumanian forces gets ready to assault the Crimea, with the primary target beeing Sevastopol, the black sea fleet harbor and important industrial city.

Finland
Nothing to report

Luftwaffe
It seems that the red air force finally recovered from the early blows and they began to resist fiercly this turn, heavy air combat errupted all along the front. But our veteran Luftwaffe pilotes, having better planes and more experience than their soviet counterparts, still managed to come out on top, shooting down more soviets than taking losses themself.

Estimated soviet losses this turn:
27 Rifle Divisions
1 Tank Divisions
1 Motorized Division
 

Kraut

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I've just finished the latest animation, showing turn 1-12 (which I'm currently busy doing), enjoy ;)
 
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